As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
12And Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You [are] saying to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ and You have not declared whom You will send with me, and You have said, ‘I know you in name and also you have found grace in My eyes.’ 13And now, if (na) I have found grace in Your eyes, cause me (na) to know Your ways, and I will know You, so that I will find grace in Your eyes; and see (impv.) that this nation is Your people. 14And He said, “My faces will walk [with you] and I will give you (sing.) rest.”
I am still working my way back to finishing my study of
Galatians but want to work with the OT Hebrew a while longer before heading back
into NT Greek. Exodus 33 is a passage that caught my eye many years ago and I have
often read it again with pleasure, always hoping someday to get the time to
actually study it. Facing the various uncertainties of the future, my mind has
often quoted the (paraphrased) words, “Lord, if Your presence goes not with us,
send us not up!”
So here I am! I feel like the proverbial kid in the candy
shop! This is another passage I alost feel like I should take off my shoes just
to gaze at these words. What a blessing. Well, let’s wade in and see what “wondrous
things from Thy Word” we’ll find!
First off, as I have been studying, I realize that I have
never really appreciated the context of this passage. I have loved to read
Moses’ words, to see him conversing so directly with the Lord, and then of
course reading the “cleft of the rock” passage; but I never noticed context.
This whole interchange is immediately following Israel’s great apostacy with
the golden calf. This is a time of intense emotion in Moses’ life. His whole
world has been about leading these people to the Promised Land. He was on the mountain,
receiving from God the Ten Commandments, no doubt filled with hope and
excitement for the days ahead. Then suddenly it all falls to pieces. And to
make it even worse, it is Aaron who actually orchestrated the failure -- his
own brother, the man who has been his bosom companion through it all. Then God
announces that He will no longer go with these people, yet still tells Moses to
lead them.
I like how Adam Clarke sums it up:
He
was in great perplexity and doubt; he was afraid that God
was about to abandon this people; and he well knew that if he did so, their
destruction must be the consequence. He had received general
directions to decamp, and lead the people towards the promised land;
but this was accompanied with a threat that Jehovah would not go with them. The prospect that was before
him was exceedingly gloomy and discouraging; and it was rendered the more so
because God
predicted their persevering stiffneckedness, and gave this as one reason why he
would not go up among them, for their provocations would be so great and so
frequent that his justice would be so provoked as to break through in a moment
and consume them.
Here is Moses, surrounded by failure, and threatened with
the fear of God’s abandonment. Our worlds can often feel this way, whether in
cataclysmic circumstances (like this) or in the little catastrophes of our
everyday existence. In one way or another, our hopes get suddenly demolished
and suddenly our future becomes uncertain. We don’t know the outcome, but we
easily fear the possibilities. We don’t know that the Lord is going to help us
(or so we feel). What should we do?
We should do exactly what Moses did and take it all to the
Lord. The rest of this passage teaches us profound truths about the Lord, about
our relationship with Him, and about prayer in the midst of disappointment and
uncertainty.
First off, I find it amazing how Moses dialogues with God.
The Lord has expressly stated His intentions in verses 2 and 3, “I will send an
angel before you … but I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked
people and I might destroy you on the way.” Pause and realize that Moses’
entire prayer here is actually contradicting what the Lord has clearly
expressed as His intent! Moses is actually objecting to the plans of the Sovereign
of the Universe(!) – and doing it right to His face! I’m reminded of Abigail
when she met David on his way to destroy Nabal and actually persuaded him
against it.
I like what a man named John Schultz wrote:
God is so personal and so real. He’s so approachable. Who
would ever dream it was okay (even good!) for a mere human to approach the God
of the universe and object to His plans?!! And yet, obviously this is the very
depth of relationship into which He invites us. I love that Schultz noted that
the key is “understanding the love of God.” The love of God. We could talk in this situation about the holiness of
God, the majesty of God, His justice, etc., but love is a relationship word. And
in the midst of deep disappointment and uncertainty, it certainly is the love of God, that personal, embracing
relationship, we need.
Moses clearly understood this. And so, in the midst of his
own deep disappointment and uncertainly, he stepped into the warmth and
security and hope of this love relationship between himself and the Lord, and there
entreats the Lord to alter His plans.
J.I. Packer once referred to “The people who know their God.”
Moses was one of them. I want to be another. Like Paul said, “I want to know
Him.” I have studied the Bible these last 30-some years, longing to know this
God who saved me, and He has certainly never disappointed me. The more I learn
of Him, the more He amazes me. There really is no end to understanding what is
the height and depth and breadth and length of the love of Christ. Who has
known the mind of the Lord? His ways are past finding out! Yet, to know Him at
all is to want to know Him better.
There is much more to say, I think, even about verses 12-14,
but I think I’ll save those thoughts for another post. In the meantime, may I
enter even more fully into this love relationship between me and my God. May I enjoy
more and more just how deeply personal this relationship is!
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